(A) Adherens junctions, in the form of adhesion belts, between epithelial cells in the small intestine. The beltlike junction encircles each of the interacting cells. Its most obvious feature is a contractile bundle of actin filaments running along the cytoplasmic surface of the junctional plasma membrane. (B) Some of the molecules that form an adherens junction. The actin filaments are joined from cell to cell by transmembrane adhesion proteins called cadherins. The cadherins form homodimers in the plasma membrane of each interacting cell. The extracellular domain of one cadherin dimer binds to the extracellular domain of an identical cadherin dimer on the adjacent cell. The intracellular tails of the cadherins bind to anchor proteins that tie them to actin filaments. These anchor proteins include α-catenin, β-catenin, γ-catenin (also called plakoglobin), α-actinin, and vinculin.